wayne-naming
This asks why Wallace gave a character the name of a famous movie star — a deliberate joke, a legal dodge, or a thematic point. It is contested because the in-text material only plays on the name's commonness, leaving any behind-the-scenes rationale as fan lore rather than something the book supports.
Adjudication
This crux has an adversarial ledger: Wayne, Avril, and the A.F.R.. The per-reading verdicts are below.
Theories on this crux
| Reading | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Wayne's fate & meltdown | favored |
Discussed in
- IJ Book Club Ep. 39 (S3 Ep 5): Ablutions, eh? — the toothbrush walkthrough delivered at last: Joelle at Gately's bedside, abiding between heartbeats, and the wraith-and-Lyle DMZ dosing mechanism argued in full (pp. ~854–mid-860s)
- The Great Concavity Ep. 9: Jenni Baker on Erasing Infinite — erasure poetry from every page of IJ (early 2016, Infinite Winter's opening weeks)
- The Second Time Around (Through page 102)